CCAR RESPONSA

Contemporary American Reform Responsa

117. The Sh'ma as a Tombstone

Inscription

QUESTION: Would it be permissible to inscribe the verse

Sh'ma Yisrael on a tombstone? (R. W., Pittsburgh, PA)

ANSWER:

Inscriptions on Jewish tombstones may be found as early as Greek and Roman times.
Usually they were confined to the name of the deceased and a brief description of his life. This
practice was continued in subsequent centuries. Only rarely were any quotations from Biblical or
later literature found on stones until modern times. There would be no problem with such
inscriptions, even with those intimately connected with the synagogue service. In fact, the more
familiar synagogue psalms are used most frequently for such statements. Tradition has, of
course, prohibited the conducting of a formal service on a cemetery and the building of a
synagogue with a Torah on a cemetery. The general statement made in connection with
these prohibitions was that we do not mock the inability of the dead to praise God (Ber. 18a;
Shulhan Arukh Yoreh Deah 367.2). Everything is done to help overcome sorrow and not
to reemphasize it. Nothing would prohibit the use of this verse which has become so central to
Judaism on a tombstone inscription.